I Cheat, So I Achieve Perfection Instantly

After finishing his attribute allocation, Lu Xingshi stayed for another three days before taking his leave from the group and departing Que Mi Village, intending to head to Youping County.

The reason he left was that the bandit problem in Youping County had already been resolved—the news was brought back by the villager who had originally delivered the Bearman's head.

The bandits' heads were hung at the city gate, already rotten beyond recognition.

Feng Gu was somewhat reluctant and even wanted to apprentice alongside Lu Xingshi, but Lu Xingshi had no intention of becoming Gao Li's disciple. The platform Gao Li could offer him was far too low.

Moreover, Gao Li didn't seem to like him much either; it was better for both sides not to disturb each other.

Before leaving, Lu Xingshi traded the knife the Village Chief had given him as a quest reward for ten taels of silver and an ordinary-quality blade.

The main reason was that after seeing the Yellow Sand Heavy Saber, a blade with attributes, Lu Xingshi found the Village Chief's knife rather unimpressive. It was better than an average blade, but not by much—just slightly higher durability and a bit more sharpness.

Against something like a Bearman, it was no different from an ordinary knife. Against weaker foes, one slash settled things, so there was no difference either.

Seeing this, the Village Chief also gifted Lu Xingshi a martial art called "Primal Chaos Art." It sounded impressive, but in reality, it was a common, run-of-the-mill technique.

Its grade was a bit higher than his "Qi Guiding Art" and "Breathing Exercise."

However, obtaining it wasn't that easy—it was used as a foundation-building technique by some small to medium-sized sects, emphasizing balance and stability.

Since Lu Xingshi's Three-Dimensional Attributes had reached 20 points, his learning speed was much faster than before. Most of his time was wasted on flipping pages.

And once he learned it, he immediately reached the tenth level of mastery without even needing to cultivate. He was very satisfied with the result—good aptitude really let him do whatever he wanted.

The attributes he gained were similar to those from "Qi Guiding Art" and "Breathing Exercise," but fortunately, these attributes could stack.

This gave Lu Xingshi an idea: if he used a large number of low-level martial arts and directly learned them, could he stack enough attributes to become a powerhouse?

Building an attribute monster purely from basic techniques.

The idea was good, but there was one problem: cost.

He had directly maxed out "Primal Chaos Art," but it came at a cost. He had to eat a lot of food to pull his Health Points back up.

"Health attribute is literal; Breath Control should be for recovery, and Inner Breath is the extra Inner Force cap."

"So that's why I was stuck at 21 Inner Force before, and cultivation became harder."

"Now with Primal Chaos Art and my 20 Physical Constitution, my Inner Force should be able to grow further."

Lu Xingshi cycled Primal Chaos Art once and felt a smoothness far beyond the previous two techniques.

"Could I create my own technique?" Lu Xingshi suddenly thought of this.

Other people's techniques could be used to stack attributes and effects, but a technique tailored to himself could serve as his main cultivation method, aligning with the uniqueness of his Peerless Genius Innate Trait.

"No rush. Right now, I only have three techniques, and they're all common stuff." Lu Xingshi knew that creating a technique required accumulation. His current Martial Arts Knowledge wasn't enough to support such an endeavor.

His Comprehension was indeed high, but he couldn't create something from nothing. Trying to deduce an entire mathematical system from a kindergarten picture book was just wishful thinking.

Over the next three days traveling to Youping County, Lu Xingshi cultivated "Primal Chaos Art" while studying himself.

When his Inner Force reached 51 points, he hit a bottleneck—not exactly a bottleneck, but the proficiency required to increase Inner Force shot up dramatically. After that, Lu Xingshi stopped cultivating.

However, if he circulated Primal Chaos Art with Inner Force, it actually had healing and health-nourishing effects, though the effects were weak. Using it to recover his Health Points consumed Inner Force.

At this point, his Inner Force was about a third of the Desert Blade's.

The Desert Blade's advantage lay in his saber techniques, not Inner Force. It could also be that the internal technique he cultivated wasn't of high quality.

Of course, it was more likely that Lu Xingshi's Peerless Genius Innate Trait gave him an edge.

The words "Peerless" and "Genius" together were never ordinary.

Upon arriving at Youping County, Lu Xingshi saw the bandits' heads hanging at the city gate, used as a deterrent.

After entering the city, the guarding soldiers saw Lu Xingshi's martial artist appearance and didn't stop him, not even charging an entry fee.

This was one of the small privileges of being a martial artist.

Youping County was much larger than Floating Goose Town and far more prosperous.

But in Lu Xingshi's eyes, this prosperity was nothing special. A commercial street in a modern society could outshine the entire county town.

If it were a high-martial world, there might be something to see, but a low-martial world really had nothing worth looking at.

"Give me a copy of the Rumor Report." Lu Xingshi entered a rather ornate shop by the roadside. The shop was called the Rumor Hall, similar to a newspaper, but its contents mostly covered martial world affairs.

From Youping County, Lu Xingshi learned quite a bit about the martial world.

For instance, the major sects under heaven were divided into the One Emperor Two Sects, the Three Cold Weather Gates, and the Five Veins Under Heaven.

The One Emperor referred to the Great Song Dynasty Court's Imperial Awakening Palace, which only accepted imperial family members, making it quite mysterious and rarely in the news.

The Two Sects were the True Martial Sect and the Heart Chan Sect, standing opposite each other in the north and south, considered true prestigious sects.

Next, the Three Cold Weather Gates originated from a source that once stood on equal footing with the True Martial Sect and Heart Chan Sect but later split into three sects. The Five Veins Under Heaven had a similar situation, though they banded together for warmth.

In terms of strength, aside from the Imperial Awakening Palace, which held a transcendent status backed by imperial power, the truly powerful were the True Martial Sect and the Heart Chan Sect.

However, the leaders of both sects served as the two National Preceptors of the Great Song Dynasty Court, assisting the current emperor in governance. What the actual situation was, Lu Xingshi wasn't sure.

"Coming right up!" the Shop Waiter called out, then handed Lu Xingshi a copy of the Rumor Report.

Lu Xingshi paid and picked it up to read.

A voice came from beside him: "Young friend, what do you think of the recent Tianshan Sword Debate?"

Lu Xingshi turned his head and saw an old man with white hair.

"I'll take a look standing up," Lu Xingshi replied. He was just a small fry in the martial world—what did he know about the Tianshan Sword Debate? He hadn't even recognized a few people yet.

This answer caught the old man off guard.